Jonathan Wheatley hopes to see Helmut Marko head up the Red Bull driver development programme “for a much, much longer period of time”, amid talks that Sebastian Vettel may return to the team in an advisory capacity.

Christian Horner’s sacking by Red Bull might have come as a shock to some, but cracks continued to show just a few weeks ago, after comments about its 2026 Formula 1 car that “surprised” Helmut Marko.

Christian Horner has been officially sacked from Red Bull as the team navigates through a very difficult phase. Horner has led the team through extreme ups and downs since the Austrian outfit joined Formula 1 in 2005.